In his Jan. 5 column, “ISIS is watching us,” University of Calgary terror researcher Michael Zekulin offers welcome pushback to the notion, popular amongst liberal commentators, that lone-wolf terrorism is more the product of mental disease than it is of ideology.

Writing of the October attacks in which Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent and Corporal Nathan Cirillo were killed in separate incidents, Zekulin says that the “predominant narrative” of mental illness and criminal histories “is an oversimplification and misrepresentation.” His analysis of larger samples of terrorists shows that “the majority are remarkably normal and do not demonstrate any significant abnormal characteristics.”

The present discussion around what is or is not normal behaviour recalls to mind Lenin’s sibylline utterance on political bloodletting: “Who? Whom?” which means: interpretation depends on who is doing the killing and who is being killed. If a politically correct group does the killing, the killers’ moral deviancy is dumbed down (they are “militants” or “revolutionaries”) or otherwise exculpated (mentally ill). If politically incorrect, they are simply evil.

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It works the other way too. A clearly mentally-ill lone wolf is judged evil, and representative of a greater evil, when his crime suits the purposes of a political movement. Polytechnique massacrist Marc Lepine was the very epitome of the lone wolf beset by personal demons. He had no ideology, belonged to no movement, followed no leader, but was counter-narrated by feminists into a poster boy for the politically correct (alleged) evil of inherent male misogyny.

And when the killer is demonstrably a true believer? Again, Who? Whom? To denounce fundamentalist Christianity in the rare event of a Bible-thumper’s killing of an abortion doctor, whether the killer is mentally disturbed or not, is never perceived as racism. But linkage of any terrorist act to Islam is repugnant to liberals, even when the killers themselves declare Islam is their motivation.

We saw intense Islamo-cringism following the 2009 Fort Hood massacre, in which Maj. Nidal Hasan, an army psychiatrist who had made his Islamist views well-known for years, shot 13 people dead while shouting “Allahu Akbar.” (His business card had the words “Soldier of Allah” on it!)

But liberals refused to recognize ideology as his motivation, several insisting on the desperation counter-narrative of PTSD (he was never in combat, but it was claimed he was driven over the edge by stories he heard from soldiers who had been to Iraq and Afghanistan). “I cringe that he’s a Muslim … I think he’s probably just a nut case,” wrote Evan Thomas of Newsweek. Time’s Joe Klein went farther, denouncing “odious attempts by Jewish extremists … to argue that the massacre perpetrated by Nidal Hasan was somehow a direct consequence of his Islamic beliefs.” (Really, Joe? It’s not the Islamists, it’s those pesky Jooz that are the real problem?)

Communism used to get the same kid-glove treatment from liberal media types when it came to terrorism. Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated JFK, was an America-hating, hard-core communist. He killed Kennedy to prevent the U.S. from overthrowing Castro or invading Cuba. The Left owned this crime but, with Cirque de Soleil-worthy intellectual contortionism, liberals produced a counter-narrative cut from whole cloth in order to shift the blame to the Right.

The day after the shooting James Reston, Washington Bureau Chief of The New York Times ascribed Oswald’s lone-wolf action to “something in the nation itself, some strain of madness and violence.” Chief Justice Earl Warren immediately declared JFK had suffered martyrdom “as a result of the hatred and bitterness that has been injected into the life of our nation by bigots.” The counter-narrative of right-wing racism took firm hold. California governor Pat Brown organized candlelight vigils nation-wide “to pledge the end of intolerance.” A NYT editorial three days afterward projected “the shame all Americans must bear for the spirit of madness and hate…”

Oswald did not represent a “spirit” of madness and hate any more than Marc Lepine represented a spirit of mass misogyny. The JFK assassination was a significant moment in the Cold War. It was massaged into a civil-rights platform in order to denounce the right, as surely as Klein shifted blame to the Jews for calling out Hasan’s Islamism. We can be sure that there would have been no conspiracy theories about JFK’s assassination if the assassin actually was a right-winger.

We’re in the middle of a Hot War with Islamism. There will be more attempted, or realized, lone-wolf terrorist attacks on our shores. In the event, it would be helpful if the liberal media could ditch its love affair with narratives, and stick with the truth.

The transitions of three young Canadian men are each severe and mystifying: a confident, ambitious student-council president in Hamilton who snuck away to fight with ISIS in Syria; a poker-playing party guy in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu who steered his car into two soldiers; and, the most recent to force headlines, a troubled drug addict and petty criminal who shot dead a soldier on ceremonial duty in Ottawa before storming Canada’s Parliament.

Each came from a different place, geographically but also socially, but all ended up in a similar space, as bit players in a driving global narrative of Westerners swapping normality — traversing the spectrum from laudable to disgraceful — for a life and quick death consumed by extremist ideology and violent aggression.

TwitterThis photo of Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, taken by a tourist at the war memorial shooting, was quickly posted by a pro-ISIS Twitter account after it was leaked.

And in each case, what has thusly emerged as a common thread is not a clandestine sect of militant recruiters in Canada mentoring selected targets but rather a broad message spreading via the Internet and finding fertile minds that process and nurture the message in different ways and likely for different reasons.

It is the growing and increasingly dangerous Canadian experience of the digital seduction of jihad.

“I cannot overstate it — at the heart of jihad worldwide, in Syria and Iraq, as well as what is happening now in Canada, U.S. and Europe, are American social media companies,” says Steve Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, based in Washington.

“They are helping to drive it. If it were not for them, recruitment, fundraising and communication would not be what they are.”

From relatively old-school Internet sharing sites like YouTube and Facebook to current giants Twitter and newer and smaller cousins such as Ask.fm, Kik, WhatsApp and, just recently, SoundCloud, all platforms are exploited to press the jihadi cause, he says.

“Every major designated terrorist organization is active on all of these accounts.”

To be truly surprised that young jihadists are using the tools of the young is perhaps naive, but the depth and breadth and inordinate success of the social media strategy to amplify and echo the militant call has sparked closer scrutiny.

In the early days of Al-Qaeda, fighting against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, militants had little means to spread their message beyond the villages that fighters passed through. It might mail newsletters to London, but the message would be tired and limp.

The message now is immediate and modern — Internet memes and slogans, audio of speeches and video from the front lines, how-to guides and personalized encouragement, hipster jokes and proffered camaraderie, all on a smartphone.

“Now, tweeting from the battlefield gets your message out in a second everywhere throughout the Middle East and the West,” says Mr. Stalinsky. “It is absolutely effective.”

He blasts social media companies for being slow to quell the message, especially Twitter, which he says is the major jihadi platform today but is not proactively monitored.

‘Now, tweeting from the battlefield gets your message out in a second everywhere … It is absolutely effective’

A Twitter spokesman confirmed violence-espousing accounts are deleted only after complaints: “We review all reported content against our rules, which prohibit violent threats.”

For all of the power of the digital sphere to radicalize and recruit, though, the transition from thinker to killer is typically more nuanced.

Ross Frenett is manager of the Against Violent Extremism Network at the U.K.-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue. He works with hundreds of former extremists from neo-Nazis to jihadis.

Mr. Frenett says propaganda sent out broadly, even when tailored to appeal to specific audiences, is only the initial approach. It is designed to grab attention and usually must then move into a more intimate engagement.

“For extremist groups generally, and even for ISIS specifically, personal contact and one-to-one conversation is hugely important,” he says.

“The idea that someone would go onto YouTube, watch a video and then immediately get on a plane or immediately carry out an attack is obviously nonsense. It is much more of a process. Face-to-face is the most likely way to have someone transition from one side of the divide of thinking about it to actually doing something about it.”

Handout/AFP/Getty ImagesScreen grab taken from a video uploaded by a Youtube channel which posts videos from areas under ISIS's control, allegedly showing an ISIS fighter firing a heavy machine gun in Kobani, Syria.

But Internet forums can replicate that one-to-one communication, moving even that facet of facilitation into the digital sphere.

According to early evidence, that’s certainly true in the three recent Canadian cases.

Martin Couture-Rouleau, a 25-year-old man from St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC, struck down two Canadian soldiers on Monday in a hit-and-run in a parking lot. One of the soldiers died and Couture-Rouleau was shot dead in a confrontation with officers.

Social media portrays him as the kind of guy who until recently would salute cameras with a beer in hand. But after converting to Islam last year, he veered towards a radical social media. He followed jihadi Tweets and Facebook posts and social media accounts espousing an increasingly intolerant message.

‘At the heart of jihad worldwide … are American social media companies’

His own Twitter account, under his assumed name Ahmad Rouleau, featured the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, known as ISIS, a designated terrorist group.

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, was barely out of high school when he started accumulating criminal convictions: false credit cards, impaired driving, fraud, robbery, drug possession. He was rejected by a Vancouver mosque for erratic behaviour.

Before his Ottawa attacks Wednesday, he had been reading online posts from a Canadian jihadist who urged followers to “carry out attacks on Canada,” sources told the National Post.

Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud, 20, from Hamilton, Ont., was not a recent convert. He was born into a Muslim family who came to Canada as refugees from Somalia. But he was radicalized after years of open and friendly engagement in community and school life, and removed himself from the mainstream Muslim community.

WebISIS member Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud of Hamilton was reportedly killed by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in Syria.

Instead, he immersed himself in radical Internet forums, says Hussein Hamdani, a spokesman for the family. “And that became his community.” He eventually travelled to Turkey, where he was smuggled across the border to Syria by fellow jihadis. He was reportedly killed there last month.

As governments, police and corporations grasp how jihadis use digital tools to spread their message, more needs to be done to counter their efforts before the transitions to violent extremism become irreparable, says Mr. Frenett.

“I think there is too much focus by government and others on taking material off the Internet and not nearly enough on putting material on it.

“With the nature of the Internet, over 100 hours of YouTube footage gets uploaded every second so obviously you can’t ever fully control that space,” he says.

“Much more important is the creation of counter-narratives, so that when someone does go looking — for the truth about Syria and Iraq, the caliphate, how to travel to Syria — what they find are things that describe and counter the lies that ISIS and other organizations put out there.

“We need to start engaging in this battle of ideas rather than thinking we need to suppress it.”

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad says an Israeli strike on a Gaza media centre has killed one of its top militant leaders.

Monday’s strike in downtown Gaza City was part of a widening 6-day-old offensive meant to quell Hamas rocket fire.

It’s the second strike on the building in two days. The Hamas TV station, Al Aqsa, is located on the top floor.

Islamic Jihad has sent a text message to reporters saying that Ramez Harb was killed in the strike Monday. Harb is a leading figure in their militant wing, the Al Quds Brigades.

Israeli aircraft have struck several crowded areas in the Gaza Strip, driving up the Palestinian death toll to 94 and devastating several homes belonging to one clan as Israel broadened its targets in the 6-day-old offensive.

Hamas fighters also have fired hundreds of rockets into Israel in the current round of fighting, including 75 on Monday, one that hit an empty school.

Escalating its bombing campaign, Israel on Sunday began attacking homes of activists in Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza. These attacks have led to a sharp spike in civilian casualties, killing 24 civilians in just under two days and doubling the number of civilians killed in the conflict, a Gaza health official said.

The rising toll was likely to intensify pressure on Israel to end the fighting. Hundreds of civilian casualties in an Israeli offensive in Gaza four years ago led to fierce international condemnation of Israel.

Hamas fighters, meanwhile, have fired hundreds of rockets into Israel in the current round of fighting, including 75 on Monday, among them one that hit an empty school. Twenty rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile battery, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Rockets landed in open areas of Beersheva, Ashdod, Asheklon. Schools in southern Israel have been closed since the start of the offensive Wednesday.

The new airstrikes came as Egypt was trying to broker a cease-fire, with the help of Turkey and Qatar. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and a delegation of Arab foreign ministers were expected in Gaza on Tuesday. However, Israel and Hamas appeared far apart in their demands, and a quick end to the fighting seemed unlikely.

A senior Egyptian official told The Associated Press on Monday that Hamas and Israel were each presenting Egypt with their conditions for a cease-fire.

“I hope that by the end of the day we will receive a final signal of what can be achieved,” said the official, who is familiar with the indirect negotiations. He said Israel and Hamas are both looking for guarantees to ensure a long-term stop to hostilities. The official says Egypt’s aim is to stop the fighting and “find a direct way to lift the siege of Gaza.”

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the indirect negotiations.

“Hamas’s comments about a ceasefire, alleging that Israel is begging for one, are about as accurate as its claims to have shot down an F-15 [warplane] or attacked the Knesset,” a senior government official said.

Overall, the offensive that began Wednesday killed 94 Palestinians, including 50 civilians, and wounded some 720 people, Gaza heath official Ashraf al-Kidra said. Among the wounded were 225 children, he said.

On the Israeli side, three civilians have died from Palestinian rocket fire and dozens have been wounded. An Israeli rocket-defense system has intercepted hundreds of rockets bound for populated areas.

In Monday’s violence, a missile struck a three-story home in the Gaza City’s Zeitoun area, flattening the building and badly damaging several nearby homes. Shell-shocked residents searching for belongings climbed over debris of twisted metal and cement blocks in the street.

The strike killed three adults and a 2-year-old boy, and wounded 42 people, al-Kidra said.

Residents said Israel first sent a warning strike at around 2 a.m. Monday, prompting many people in the area to flee their homes. A few minutes later, heavy bombardment followed.

REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah Israeli missiles blasted a tower block that houses many international media for a second straight day on Monday, targeting a computer shop in the building, witnesses said.

Ahed Kitati, 38, had rushed out after the warning missile to try to hustle people to safety. But he was fatally struck by a falling cinderblock, leaving behind a pregnant wife, five young daughters and a son, the residents said.

Sitting in mourning with her mother and siblings just hours after her father’s death, 11-year-old Aya Kitati clutched a black jacket, saying she was freezing, even though the weather was mild. “We were sleeping, and then we heard the sound of the bombs,” she said, then broke down sobbing.

Ahed’s brother, Jawad Kitati, said he plucked the lifeless body of a 2-year-old relative from the street and carried him to an ambulance. Blood stains smeared his jacket sleeve.

Another clan member, Haitham Abu Zour, 24, woke up to the sound of the warning strike and hid in a stairwell. He emerged to find his wife dead and his two infant children buried under the debris, but safe.

Clan elder Mohammed Azzam, 61, denied that anyone in his family had any connections to Hamas.

“The Jews are liars,” he said. “No matter how much they pressure our people, we will not withdraw our support for Hamas.”

Late Sunday, an Israeli missile killed a Hamas policeman and his 8-year-old son on the roof of their Gaza City home. The father was on the roof to repair a leaking water tank, his relatives said.

In another area of Gaza City, the patriarch of the Daloo family, Jamal, sat in mourning for 11 members of his family killed in a missile strike on his home Sunday. Among the dead were his wife, his son, daughter-in-law, his sister and four grandchildren. He embraced relatives and neighbors paying their condolences, his face swollen from crying.

The mourners sat in plastic chairs just meters away from bulldozers clearing the ruins of Daloo’s home. His 16-year-old daughter Yara was still missing and believed under the rubble, family members said.

AP Photo/Hatem MoussaSmoke trails are seen after ordnance were fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza City towards southern Israel, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012.

Daloo, who is left with two sons, tried to take comfort in the belief that the loss of his family was God’s will and that the dead are now in paradise. He vehemently disputed Israel’s initial claim that a senior operative of Islamic Jihad, a smaller sister group of Hamas, was hiding in his house. He said his son Mohammed, one of those killed, was a policeman in the Gaza police, but not an activist.

“The international public opinion witnessed the facts,” he said of the tragedy that befell him. “This does not require my words.”

Also Monday, Israel bombarded the remains of the former national security compound in Gaza City. Flying shrapnel killed one child and wounded others living nearby, al-Kidra said. Five farmers were killed in two separate strikes, al-Kidra said, including three who he said had been mistakenly identified earlier by Hamas security officials as Islamic Jihad fighters.

Other strikes killed two fighters on a motorcycle in southern Gaza and two passengers in a taxi that had put a press sign in the windshield, al-Kidra said.

MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty ImagesAn Israeli soldier holds Torah scrolls as he conducts morning prayers at an Israeli army deployment area near the Israel-Gaza Strip border in preparation for a potential ground operation in the Palestinian coastal enclave on November 19, 2012.

Israel launched the current offensive after months of intensifying rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, which has continued despite the strikes.

In the night from Sunday to Monday, aircraft targeted about 80 militant sites, including underground rocket-launching sites, smuggling tunnels and training bases, as well as Palestinian command posts and weapons storage facilities located in buildings owned by militant commanders, the Israeli military said in a release. Aircraft and gunboats joined forces to attack Hamas police headquarters, and Palestinian rocket squads were struck as they prepared to fire, the release said.

In all, 1,350 targets in the Gaza Strip have been struck since the Israeli operation began. However, military activity over the past two nights has dropped off as targets change and international efforts to wrest a cease-fire plod ahead.

Israel and Hamas have put forth widely divergent conditions for a truce. But failure to end the fighting threatens to touch off an Israeli ground invasion, for which thousands of soldiers, backed by tanks and armored vehicles, have already been mobilized and dispatched to Gaza’s border.

President Barack Obama said he was in touch with players across the region in hopes of halting the fighting. While defending Israel’s right to defend itself against the rocket fire, he also warned of the risks the Jewish state would take if it were to expand its air assault into a ground war.

“If we see a further escalation of the situation in Gaza, the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two-state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future,” Obama said.

REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu MustafaPalestinians gather around a destroyed house after an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip November 19, 2012.

With files from Reuters

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/19/israeli-airstrike-on-gaza-media-centre-kills-top-terror-leader/feed/2galleryA member of civil defence inspects the damage after an Israeli air strike on a floor in a building that also houses media offices in Gaza City November 19, 2012.Gaza-graphic-large Israeli missiles blasted a tower block that houses many international media for a second straight day on Monday, targeting a computer shop in the building, witnesses said.Smoke rises following an Israeli attack on smuggling tunnels on the border between Egypt and Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. Smoke trails are seen after ordnance were fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza City towards southern Israel, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. An Israeli soldier holds Torah scrolls as he conducts morning prayers at an Israeli army deployment area near the Israel-Gaza Strip border in preparation for a potential ground operation in the Palestinian coastal enclave on November 19, 2012. Palestinians gather around a destroyed house after an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip November 19, 2012. Islamic Jihad celebrates forcing 'a million Israelis' into sheltershttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/16/islamic-jihad-celebrates-forcing-a-million-israelis-into-shelters/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/16/islamic-jihad-celebrates-forcing-a-million-israelis-into-shelters/#commentsFri, 16 Mar 2012 16:56:45 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=152527

By Adel Zaanoun

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Gaza militant group Islamic Jihad seeks to create a “balance of terror” with Israel, a senior member of its military wing has told AFP in an exclusive interview.

Speaking shortly after a truce ended a four-day flare-up in violence between Gaza militants and Israel, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigade hailed the fact that it forced “a million Israelis to hide in shelters.”

The leader, who goes by the nom-de-guerre of Abu Ibrahim, also warned that the Brigades possesses long-range weapons that could hit the Israeli city of Tel Aviv and could be used in its next conflict with the Jewish state.

“What we seek with our rockets is not to kill Israelis, but to maintain a balance of terror,” he told AFP during the interview, conducted at a secret location, flanked by armed bodyguards.

“The fact that a million Israelis were stuck inside shelters and suffered as as our people do is more important for us than deaths.”

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The latest violence between Israel and Gaza militants began on March 9, when Israel’s assassinated the commander of the Popular Resistance Committees group.

In response, militants led by the Al-Quds Brigades fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel over the course of four days, bringing life in much of the region to a standstill.

Israeli war planes carried out dozens of air strikes, killing 25 people, among them 14 members of Islamic Jihad.

Around 250 rockets were fired from Gaza, according to Israeli figures, with around 60 of them intercepted by the country’s Iron Dome missile defence system.

Authorities banned large gatherings in the area, including sporting events, and closed schools during the outbreak of violence.

The rockets hit throughout southern Israel, with some reaching around 40 kilometres inside the country. One struck just north of Gedera, which is only about 25 kilometres from the centre of Tel Aviv, whose metropolitan area is home to nearly half the Jewish state’s population of 7.84 million.

Abu Ibrahim warned that the Brigades had weapons that could hit beyond the town of Ashdod, which lies some 35 kilometres north of Gaza.

“If the occupation targets any leader of any Palestinian group whatsoever or any citizen, the Brigades will respond with force and expand the reach of the response beyond Ashdod,” he said.

The group possessed “thousands” of rockets and had expanded its arsenal by exploiting “the opportunities offered by the (Arab) revolutions, particularly the fall of the Egyptian regime,” he added.

Still, he said, “it is not easy to transport sophisticated weapons into Gaza,” adding that 70 percent of its rockets “are made locally by a specialised section.”

“We now have guided missiles similar to Grads and we used them during the last conflict.”

Abu Ibrahim also denied tensions with Hamas, which rules Gaza and sought a quick end to the latest conflict and kept its fighters out of the battle, saying: “The Brigades operate with full freedom.”

And he denied “any coordination with any outside group, in Sinai or elsewhere.”

But he acknowledged the group receives “fundamental support” from Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, saying it had trained thousands of Brigades fighters.

He said the group was not receiving weapons from Iran, as Israel has charged, but praised Tehran’s “great support,” citing funds it gives to the families of “martyrs” and the wounded in Gaza.

But he suggested that Islamic Jihad would not get involved if Iran were to come under attack, unless Gaza was also targeted.

“We’re nothing but a drop of water in the sea, and Iran doesn’t need us. It’s a strong country militarily,” he said.

“Our fundamental fight is in Palestine,” he said. “But if the Zionist enemy hits Iran and Gaza at the same time, we will respond with force.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/16/islamic-jihad-celebrates-forcing-a-million-israelis-into-shelters/feed/1stdPalestinians stand atop the rubble of a building damaged after an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on March 14, 2012. A Palestinian rocket hit the southern Israeli city of Netivot late on Tuesday, and the military responded shortly after with an air strike in Gaza city.Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan ends 66-day hunger strike as Israel agrees to April releasehttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/21/palestinian-prisoner-khader-adnan-ends-66-day-hunger-strike-as-israel-agrees-to-april-release/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/21/palestinian-prisoner-khader-adnan-ends-66-day-hunger-strike-as-israel-agrees-to-april-release/#commentsTue, 21 Feb 2012 13:37:37 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=142772

By Majeda El Batsh

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian prisoner has ended his 66-day hunger strike over his detention without charge under a deal that will see him released in April, Palestinian and Israeli officials told AFP on Tuesday.

“The Israeli court decided to release Khader Adnan on April 17 and based on that he ended his hunger strike,” Palestinian prisoner affairs minister Issa Qaraqaa said.

Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the agreement meant “if there’s no new evidence against him, he will be released from custody on April 17.”

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Adnan’s lawyer Jawad Bulus also confirmed the deal, details of which were made public just hours before the Israeli Supreme Court was to hear an appeal against the prisoner’s detention without charge.

“There will be no extension of his administrative detention and he will be released on April 17,” Bulus told AFP.

The Israeli justice ministry confirmed that a deal had been signed, thereby ruling out the need for the hearing which had been due to start at 1300 GMT.

Adnan’s wife, Randa Mussa hailed the deal as a “victory” for her husband, whom medics said had lost more than 40% of his body weight over the past nine weeks.

“He forced the occupation to give in to his demands and I hope he returns safe to us,” she told AFP.

REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu MustafaA Palestinian covers his face with a poster depicting jailed Islamic Jihad leader Khader Adnan, who is on hunger strike to protest against his detention by Israel, during a rally supporting him in Gaza City February 21, 2012. Adnan, 33, has been refusing to eat since mid-December following his arrest in the occupied West Bank.

Adnan, 33, was detained on December 17 and began refusing food a day later to protest his detention without charge and his alleged mistreatment by interrogators.

His protest, already the longest hunger strike carried out by any Palestinian prisoner, has attracted international attention and thrown a spotlight on Israel’s use of administrative detention, a military procedure which allows suspects to be held without charge.

Israeli officials described Adnan as a “terrorist” from the radical Islamic Jihad movement, although he has never been charged with any offence, nor has any evidence against him been made public.

In January, a military court handed down a four-month administrative detention order against Adnan, which he appealed in an unusual court session earlier this month held at his hospital bed in northern Israel.

But a military court last week rejected his appeal, prompting Bulus to turn to Israel’s top court.

Doctors from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel who met with Adnan in recent days had warned that his health was failing and that he faced “immediate danger of death” if he continued to refuse food.

Rights groups have also condemned the conditions in which Adnan is being held at Ziv hospital in the northern town of Safed, where he is shackled to the bed by chains on both legs and on one arm.

REUTERS/Abed Omar QusiniA Palestinian protester (C) shouts slogans as she holds a placard depicting jailed Islamic Jihad leader Khader Adnan, while others hold pictures of their relatives who are also jailed in Israel, during a protest in support of Adnan in the West Bank city of Nablus February 20, 2012.

His case has sparked demonstrations across the Palestinian territories, with thousands of people taking part in protests on Tuesday in the West Bank cities of Nablus, Jenin, Hebron and Ramallah. A protest was also scheduled in Gaza City.

In Ramallah, shops shut down as part of a general strike in solidarity with Adnan, and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails were also on hunger strike in support of the detainee.

Palestinian officials had warned that Adnan’s death in custody could spark a violent backlash, and a spokeswoman for the Israel Prisons Service said they were aware of the “implications” of such a development.

On Monday, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said he had sent a message to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and other top diplomats urging them to put pressure on Israel over the case.

“I asked them all to intervene in Adnan’s case. They must apply pressure on Israel to release him,” he told AFP.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/21/palestinian-prisoner-khader-adnan-ends-66-day-hunger-strike-as-israel-agrees-to-april-release/feed/1stdPalestinian protesters hold pictures of Khader Adnan, 33, a senior member of Islamic Jihad jailed in Israel, during a demonstration in solidarity with Adnan, in the West Bank city of Nablus, on February 21, 2012, shortly before Adnan ended his 66-day hunger strike over his detention without charge under a deal that will see him released in April.A Palestinian covers his face with a poster depicting jailed Islamic Jihad leader Khader Adnan, who is on hunger strike to protest against his detention by Israel, during a rally supporting him in Gaza City February 21, 2012. Adnan, 33, has been refusing to eat since mid-December following his arrest in the occupied West Bank. A Palestinian protester (C) shouts slogans as she holds a placard depicting jailed Islamic Jihad leader Khader Adnan, while others hold pictures of their relatives who are also jailed in Israel, during a protest in support of Adnan in the West Bank city of Nablus February 20, 2012.Israel court to hear appeal for Palestinian hunger-striker Khader Adnan, detained without charge on terror suspicionhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/20/israel-court-to-hear-appeal-for-palestinian-hunger-striker-khader-adnan-detained-without-charge-on-terror-suspicion/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/20/israel-court-to-hear-appeal-for-palestinian-hunger-striker-khader-adnan-detained-without-charge-on-terror-suspicion/#commentsMon, 20 Feb 2012 17:04:54 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=142609

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — Israel’s Supreme Court will on Tuesday hear an appeal for the release of a Palestinian detained without charge who has been on hunger strike for more than nine weeks, his lawyer said.

The court had been due to address the appeal on Thursday but the case was brought forward by two days following an appeal by lawyer Jawad Bulus on behalf of his client, Khader Adnan.

Last week, Bulus lodged an urgent appeal with the court to lift the administrative detention order on Adnan, who on Monday marked his 65th day of a hunger strike over his detention without charge.

The court at first said it would hear the case on February 23. But Bulus made a fresh appeal on Monday to advance the hearing, prompting the court to reschedule the hearing, a court spokeswoman said.

“I sent messages to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton today, and spoke with the EU and Chinese envoys,” Erakat told AFP.

“I asked them all to intervene in Adnan’s case. They must apply pressure on Israel to release him,” he said.

Israel arrested Adnan, a 34-year-old baker, on December 17 near the northern West Bank town of Jenin, where he once served as a spokesman for the militant group Islamic Jihad.

He began refusing food a day after his arrest, and after nine weeks of hunger strike is now said to be close to death.

World leaders have expressed growing concern over the fate of the prisoner, who is being held without charge under a procedure known as “administrative detention.”

Palestinian officials have warned that his death in custody could spark a violent backlash, and a spokeswoman for the Israel Prisons Service said on Sunday that they were “constantly monitoring” the situation.

“We understand the implications of this case,” Sivan Weizman said.

But on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office went on the offensive, with a spokesman describing Adnan as “a dangerous terrorist” despite the fact he has yet to be charged with any security offences.

In a series of postings on Twitter, Gendelman said a military judge and a military court of appeal had “found him a dangerous Islamic Jihad terrorist.”

Until now, Adnan has not been charged and the military court that approved Adnan’s detention has refused to release any details on the reason for his arrest or ongoing imprisonment.

“Those who call on Israel to release Khader Adnan, an Islamic Jihad terrorist, so he could kill our kids, wouldn’t want him near their kids,” he wrote.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/20/israel-court-to-hear-appeal-for-palestinian-hunger-striker-khader-adnan-detained-without-charge-on-terror-suspicion/feed/2stdThe father of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan holds a poster of his son and an ID as he and other family members cross the Israeli maned Jalama checkpoint on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Jenin, on February 19, 2012, after the Israeli army gave them permission to visit Adnan at the Ziv hospital in Israel. Adnan, a 34-year-old baker and member of the Islamic jihad, is on hunger strike and is currently being held by Israel without charge under so-called administrative detention since his arrest on December 17.Truce with Israel will not last: Islamic Jihadhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/03/truce-with-israel-will-not-last-islamic-jihad/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/03/truce-with-israel-will-not-last-islamic-jihad/#commentsThu, 03 Nov 2011 15:41:51 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=105797

By Crispian Balmer and Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA — The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which traded deadly fire with Israel over the weekend in Gaza, does not expect a subsequent truce to last long and has at least 8,000 fighters ready for war, a spokesman said.

Islamic Jihad is the second largest armed group in Gaza, after Hamas, which rules the tiny Mediterranean enclave. The two share a commitment to the destruction of Israel and both are classified as terrorist groups by most Western governments.

However, while Hamas has recently spent much of its energy on the business of government, Islamic Jihad has kept its focus firmly on the conflict, gaining in prominence and enjoying significant backing from Muslim supporters, including Iran.

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“We are proud and honoured to say that the Islamic Republic of Iran gives us support and help,” Abu Ahmed, the spokesman for Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, the Jerusalem Brigades, told Reuters in a rare, long interview.

He denied widespread reports that Iran had provided his group with arms and smiled at suggestions it now receives more sophisticated weaponry from Tehran than Hamas. He also declined to comment on rumors that the Jihadists were trained by Iran.

“What I will say is that we have every right to turn to every source of power for help,” said the burly, bearded Abu Ahmed, occasionally flicking a string of yellow prayer beads.

Islamic Jihad’s latest confrontation with Israel left 12 Palestinian gunmen and one Israeli civilian dead. The fighting ended only after neighboring Egypt brokered a ceasefire with both parties, but Abu Ahmed did not see it lasting long.

“Theoretically the calm has been restored, but in practice it hasn’t really,” he said. Israel, he said, is itching for a fight in Gaza following last month’s prisoner-swap accord, in which Israel released 477 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held by Hamas since 2006.

Israel says it attacks only in self-defence.

TRADING BLOWS

It killed five senior Islamic Jihad militants on Saturday in retaliation for a rocket attack two days earlier that it blamed on the group. That rocket caused no casualties, but landed deep enough into Israel to set off sirens on Tel Aviv’s outskirts.

Abu Ahmed denied responsibility for the missile, saying this was how Israel had managed to find five top fighters together in the open — because they had not expected to be targeted.

But the Jerusalem Brigades soon hit back, firing numerous rockets into southern Israel, piercing the country’s defensive missile shield. One Israeli man died, at least four others were injured, while cars and a building were also set ablaze.

The group posted a video online showing a missile-launcher on the back of a truck firing a salvo of rockets. It was the first time the group has claimed to have such firepower, although there was no independent confirmation of its use.

“The Jerusalem Brigades really surprised Israel, forcing them to rethink their assessment of us … I don’t think they realized we had that weaponry,” said Abu Ahmed, indicating the vehicle was immediately hidden underground after the attack.

Jerusalem Brigades cells are dotted around Gaza and Abu Ahmed said there was huge demand from youngsters to join.

“We take some, but can’t accept everyone … It is a question of quality, not quantity,” he said, giving for the first time an estimate of the strength of the force. “We have at least 8,000 fighters, who are fully equipped.”

The group got a boost to its standing in August when the new rulers in Egypt started dealing with it directly over truces, rather than through Hamas. Abu Ahmed said Hamas was not involved in the latest fighting and that all the talking was with Egypt.

He played down reports of tensions with Hamas, which since Israel’s military offensive in Gaza in late 2008 has appeared reluctant to go head-to-head with its sworn enemy.

“Certainly in terms of ideology, there is no difference between Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. The difference is in the methodology,” Abu Ahmed said, adding that Hamas’s governmental role meant that it was “more vulnerable to outside pressure.”

He said Islamic Jihad’s biggest problem was the Israeli armed drones that regularly buzz over Gaza seeking out militants. “Warfare has changed. You can’t just hide a gun in your jacket like you could in the 1980s,” he said, adding that the Jihadist fighters were not afraid of sudden death.

“It is a good feeling to be under drone attack. When we chose the path of resistance, we opted either for martyrdom or victory. Martyrdom is the more desirable.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/03/truce-with-israel-will-not-last-islamic-jihad/feed/1stdIslamic Jihad militants take part in the funeral of their comrades in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip October 30, 2011. An Egyptian-brokered truce appeared to be taking hold on Sunday after violence between Israel and Gaza militants in which nine Palestinian gunmen and an Israeli civilian were killed.French court fines first women for full-face veilshttp://news.nationalpost.com/2011/09/22/french-court-issues-fines-first-women-for-full-face-veils/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/09/22/french-court-issues-fines-first-women-for-full-face-veils/#commentsThu, 22 Sep 2011 18:57:08 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=95882

Greetings, Redditors! Glad to see this story has inspired such a hearty discussion over there. You might be also interested in some similar news from a case currently going on in Canada:

MEAUX, France — A French police court slapped fines on women for wearing the full-face covering Islamic niqab veil for the first time Thursday, in a case that could have legal implications across Europe.

Police have issued several on-the-spot fines since the ban came into effect in April but the hearing saw the first two court-issued fines, and the pair vowed to appeal their case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights.

France is not the only country to try to ban the Muslim full-face veil — Belgium and some Italian cities have similar laws while other countries are planning to follow suit — so a European ruling could have broad effect.

The court in the northern cheese-making town of Meaux ordered Hind Ahmas, 32, to pay a 120-euro (about US$160) fine, while Najate Nait Ali, 36, was fined 80 euros. It did not order them to take a citizenship course, as the prosecutor had requested.

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The two veiled women arrived too late to attend the court hearing, but addressed journalists in front of the building.

“We’ve been sentenced under a law that violates European law. For us, it’s not about the size of the fine, but the principle. We can’t allow women to be convicted for freely following their religious beliefs,” Ahmas said.

The young woman, who comes from the troubled Paris immigrant suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois, called the ruling a “semi-victory” since it opened the way for a series of appeals she hopes will lead to the law’s abolition.

Yann Gre from the “Don’t Touch My Constitution” group that is defending the two women, said that they would appeal.

If the fines are confirmed by a higher court, they will take their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, he said.

“This law forbids women in niqab from leaving their homes and going out in public. It’s a kind of life-sentence,” he said.

The women were arrested when they brought a birthday cake for local mayor and lawmaker Jean-Francois Cope, who is head of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing UMP party that pushed through Europe’s first anti-burqa law.

Cope was instrumental in getting the ban’s scope expanded from official buildings to anywhere on the street, according to Don’t Touch My Constitution.

Several other niqab-wearing women turned out in solidarity for the sentencing, including Kenza Drider from the southern city of Avignon, who declared herself candidate in next year’s presidential election.

It is however doubtful that she will be able to get the 500 signatures from elected officials that she would need to get her name on the ballot.

The divisive law came into effect at an already fraught moment in relations between the state and France’s Muslim minority, with Sarkozy accused of stigmatising Islam to win back votes from a resurgent far right.

French officials estimate that only around 2,000 women, from a total Muslim population estimated at between four and six million, wear the full-face veils that are traditional in parts of the Arab world and South Asia.

Many Muslims and rights activists say the right-wing president is targeting one of France’s most vulnerable groups to signal to anti-immigration voters that he shares their fear that Islam is a threat to French culture.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/09/22/french-court-issues-fines-first-women-for-full-face-veils/feed/7stdKenza Drider, 32, with with placards reading " Freedom For all women." announces her candidacy for France's 2012 Presidential election on September 22, 2011 in Meaux, France. Drider is the first French Muslim woman to wear a niqab and run for President despite France's nationwide ban on the face veil, which today saw 32-year-old mother of three Hind Ahmas and Najate Nait Ali both being fined after being caught wearing the niqab in public in the Parsisan district of Meaux back in May when the law first came into force.Goodspeed Analysis: What comes after the revolution in Libyahttp://news.nationalpost.com/2011/02/26/goodspeed-analysis-what-comes-after-the-revolution-in-libya/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/02/26/goodspeed-analysis-what-comes-after-the-revolution-in-libya/#commentsSat, 26 Feb 2011 12:00:01 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=49521

Gunfire echoed through the streets of Libya’s capital Tripoli on Friday, igniting fears of a final bloody confrontation between an erratic dictator and his enraged citizens. As thousands of desperate foreigners crammed into the airport to escape, or braved rough seas to cross the Mediterranean in overloaded ferries, the world braced for the next unpredictable act in what has rapidly become a regional revolution.

Europe fears a flood of North African refugees as a result of the widening chaos in Libya, and world oil markets are panicked. Meanwhile, the West in general worries about what role Muslim fundamentalists may play in the unfolding events.

But perhaps, more importantly, fears are also growing that as despotic regimes across the Arab world collapse or struggle to survive, a post-revolution security vacuum could increase the threats posed by radical Islamist jihadists.

“If Libya dissolves into a lawless state with armed gangs of various militias, in effect a Somalia on the Mediterranean, al-Qaeda may get a foothold,” said Bruce Riedel, a Middle East expert with the Brookings Institution in Washington.

“In a worst-case scenario, if Libya experiences a vacuum of power, it could become the next Iraq or Pakistan — a gathering place for jihadists from around the region and the world,” said Scott Stewart of the political risk consultancy Stratfor.

So far, Islamist groups have not played a leading role in the popular revolts. Rather, it is a new generation of educated, secular, ambitious, young people that is challenging the despots. So far, they have toppled dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, and rattled governments in Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

“If you look at the people who launched these revolts, it is clear that they represent a ‘post-Islamist generation,’ ” said Olivier Roy, a professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

“For this generation, the great revolutionary movements of the 1970s and 1980s are history — something that mattered to their parents but not to them. This new generation is not interested in ideology. They do not invoke Islam like the older generation did…. They do not see Islam as a political ideology that can offer a better system for their societies.

“They separate their religious faith from their political agenda.”

Although Islamist religious conservatives may be out of step with the popular protests, they could stand to gain substantially from any disappointment, confusion or chaos that may follow.

“The danger obviously is that they will exploit this situation,” Richard Hass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said recently while discussing the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s revolution.

“What we’ve learned over the years, say in Iran, is that these processes take a while to play out and often have many phases. So in this first phase, the opposition is disorganized and is largely led by secularists, but that doesn’t mean that phase two, three or four will continue to have that complexion.”

The shadow of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, which toppled the Shah in 1979 only to replace him with a hardline theocracy in 1980, haunts Western perceptions of what is now happening in the Middle East.

There is a fear Islamist movements may emerge at the head of the current revolts or at least lie waiting in ambush to seize power from them.

Right now, the political role Islamists will play in countries like Egypt and Tunisia is wide open to speculation, because the regimes that will replace Hosni Mubarak and Zine el Abidine Ben Ali haven’t been determined.

Everything is being reframed — and that includes Islamist politics.

Previously banned and suppressed, the region’s Islamist groups, which defiantly challenged the old order but failed to topple it, may find they are forced into compromise as they try to compete with other political parties, some of which have yet to emerge.

In the meantime, radical jihadists may flourish.

“Whatever the cause of the uprisings, there is no question that radical Islamists will attempt to take advantage and control them,” Stratfor said in a recent research note.

“Whether they will be able to do so is a more complex and important question.”

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Libya has always had an active jihadist movement centred on the eastern cities of Darnah and Benghazi, among the first areas to fall to anti-government protesters.

But the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, founded by veterans of the Afghan jihad in the early 1990s, was ruthlessly suppressed by Libyan security forces. (This did not stop Muammar Gaddafi this week from blaming the current unrest on an al-Qaeda leadership that fed hallucinogenic drugs to young people in a bid “to create another Afghanistan.”)

Libyan jihadists were forced to flee, often to fight with al-Qaeda-linked groups in Iraq. In fact, many of al-Qaeda’s suicide bombers in Iraq came from Libya, and the group’s senior leaders included several Libyans.

It is one of the reasons Col. Gaddafi was tolerated as an ally by the West, after he claimed to renounce terrorism and weapons of mass destruction in 2003. His intelligence services monitored Libyan jihadists for more than a decade.

But with the dictator on the ropes and Libya plunging deeper into chaos, the country could provide the type of environment in which jihadists can thrive.

“If Gaddafi falls and there is a period of chaos in Libya, these militants may find themselves with far more operating space inside the country than they have experienced in decades,” said Mr. Stewart.

“If the regime does not fall and there is civil war between the eastern and western parts of the country, they could likewise find a great deal of operational space amid the chaos.”

Meanwhile, jihadists have been able to loot military arms depots, making them “more heavily armed than they have ever been inside their home country.”

The situation is similar in Egypt, where jihadists who returned from the Afghanistan war against the Soviet Union in the 1990s were crushed by Mr. Mubarak’s security forces.

An insurgency, led by the Gamaa al-Islamiya (Islamic Group) played havoc for a few years, targeting tourists, foreigners and security forces. But members who escaped execution or jail fled the country.

Ayman al-Zawahiri of Egypt’s Islamic Jihad is Osama bin Laden’s deputy and said to be the real brains behind al-Qaeda.

At the height of the first protests in Egypt’s revolution, most of the jailed jihadists were sprung from prison when police and prison guards mysteriously disappeared. About 1,500 of them are said to be on the loose, waiting to see what opportunities Egypt’s post-revolutionary politics might offer.

“Turmoil on the streets of the Arab world could give radicalism unprecedented popularity,” said Syed Saleem Shahzad, a Pakistani Islamist expert.